ARMENIANS IN THE SERVICE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1860-1908 Mesrob K. Krikorian Poin1A A d «. m «< <+ tdi-l-cons ARMENTANS TN THB SERVICE OP 1860-1908 hib.b, nek 05.6 0.500 loa 0 er o a a 0_3 © .» a 0 Jw 9 - » 073 (a [o < © 0 © m a m Lo @ falteto at # @ 0 5-060 0 ®, o me 0 0 0% id w 0, 0 waw o i hle 0 4 hid o wee hid o e on hid ach 0 ece a id 0 bd o id h 0 o o eee id 0 sel a io ORCH 0 0 ee no h 0 art o nd oR rt Mthoo ARMENIANS IN THE SERVICE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1860-1908 MESROB K. KRIKORIAN , ROUTLEDGE DIRECT EDITIONS ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL London, Henley and Boston First published in 1977 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd 39 Store Street, London WC1R 7DD, Broadway House, Newtown Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 TEN and 9 Park Street, Boston, Mass. 02108, USA Printed by Thomson Litho Ltd East Kilbride, Scotland © Mesrob K. Krikorian 1977 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Krikorian, Meszob K Armenians in the service of the Ottoman Empire, 1860-1908. 1. Armenians in Turkey 2. Armenians in Syria I. Title 301.45" 1919920566 DR435. AT 77-30080 ISBN 0-7100-8564-8 to production delays fly“ mas published in 1978 CONTENTS PREFACE vid ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABBREVIATIONS xii INTRODUCTION THE ARNENTANS OF DIYARBAKTR 18 THE ARMENTANS OF BITLIS 26 w THB ARMENTANS OP VAN 32 s THE ARMENTANS OF ERZURUK w THE ARMENTANS OF TREBIZOND a THE ARMENTANS OF SIVAS 53 <4 THE ARMENTANS OF SEYHAN 62 e THE ARMENTANS OF BMAztc To w THB ARMENTANS OP SYRIA I. THE PROVINCE OF ALEPPO 10 THE ARMENIANS OP SYRIA II. DAMASCUS, BEIRUT AND MOUNT LEBANON 92 CONCLUSIONS 102 APPENDICES 111 115 BIBLIOGRAPHY 124 134 a w‘ [hak -in - - va \t. man Pets Lg = Matt | v a9eo | Sic teman .., 1: " <p 8 Fonaltst ham i 1 * pws Ml) i 6 - San ... spi -- igh - j - mint te. § n 0 oud a topes ante g - Seme, i y i oan 1 Bi Net malt artey mist 3. w kimi lik wm arai en m nt WT,. fun j BB oy Like W _ - mhyne I ot aroars Sl m sact BB k -|f&j‘ mtl Pmfi a a nue ant aD age' ir ulll-I-"'\L|'-"!IN i Te» Jas F-li - I |_jluyL-fi 1 | i C _o ~s o[ Poke p> , learnt | "m wooow om oa 1 «A500 0wcm PREFACE Hundreds of books have been written on the Armenian Question and massacres, yet very little is known about the services of Armenians in the cultural, economic and administrative life and development of the Ottoman Empire. This study is an investigation into the con- tribution by Armenians to the Ottoman public life, especially in Eastern Anatolia and Syria from 1860 when the Armenian community in Turkey was given a new legislative Constitution on the basis of 'Tensimat' (reforms), until 1908 when the Young Turks seized the power and followed a bitter fanatic national-religious policy which had tragic consequences for both the Armenians and Turks. I have deliberately limited the area of investigation to the eastern provinces of Anatolia which earlier formed the western part of historic Amenia and which in the diplomatic language of the nineteenth century (until the Treaty signed at Sbvres, 10 August 1920) was referred to as 'provinces inhabited by Armenians'. To these 'vildyets' I have added the provinces of Syria which neigh- boured the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and where, especially in and round Aleppo, old Armenian communities had settled. Both in Anatolia and Syria, the Armenians were employed in various adminis- trative, judicial, economic and secretarial fields and, to a lesser extent, in technical affairs, agriculture, education and public health. And this in spite of the fact that, for the Armenians, these were forty-eight years of transition from established status of a favoured Christian 'millet' to the tragic insecurity of a hunted people. This study is necessarily based on the Ottoman provincial year- books ('salname') which recorded in detail the names, ranks and functions of the paid officials and unpaid commnity representatives and private citizens who served the numerous local bodies. In 1263 E/1646-7 the Ottoman Empire began to publish imperial year-books ('Deviet-i Aliye-i osmaniye salnamesi'), listing the officials of the central and provincial governments (S.R. Iskit, 'Mirkiyede negriyat hareketleri tarihine bir bakig' ('A Historical Survey of Publishing Activities in Turkey!), Istanbul, 1939, pp.34-6 and 356-61 and 'ET' ist, iv, p83). In 12848/1867-8 the chief secretary ('mektubou') of the province of Aleppo, Ibrehim Halet Bey (a biography of whom can be seen in 'Mirkiye Ansiklopedisi' ('Encyclopaedia of Turkey!), vii viii Preface Ankara, iii, 1956, p.133) published a statistical annual of the pro- vince. Soon other followed the example of Aleppo, and thus there were created the provincial year-books (Iskit, op. cit., pp.96-7). These 'salnames' gave the geography, produce, population and all the officials and officers of their provinces. As Iskit has pointed out in an ted way the 'vildyet-salnames' are 'for the most part wrong! (ibid., pp.360-1), but in my research, mis- spellings of names, and also mistakes in geographical and historical surveys did not cause any special difficulty, because I was inter- ested in differentiating between the names of the Muslim and Chris- tian officials, while compiling statistics of personnel of all the departments of government affaire. In Burope the best collection of the provincial year-books of Eastern Anatolia is possessed by the Bibliothbque Nubar of the Armenian General Benevolent Union in Paris. In order to study a sufficient number of these 'salnames' for comparative purposes, I undertook a tour of the Middle East and worked in the Library of the American University of Beirut, in the State Library of Aleppo, and in the libraries of the University and of the Municipality of Istanbul. The last ('Istanbul Belediye Kfitlibhanesi') has quite a lange collection of year-books. At the beginning of each chapter I have made a historical survey of the relevant province. For this part of my study I have con- sulted the 'Encyclopaedia of Isl&m' fruit and second editions), 'IslAm Ansiklopedisi', §. Frageri's 'Qémfs ('Dictionary of Proper Names!), R. Grousset's 'Aistoire de l'Aménic', Y. Manan- dian's 'Critical Survey of the History of the Armenian People', M,. Ormanian's 'History of the Armenian Nation', local histories of the Armenian communities in Eastern Anatolia and Syria, and other sources which are referred to as they ocour. In presenting the al- ministrative structure of the 'viléyets', I have utilized the in- perial and provincial year-books, the encyclopaedias mentioned above, and 'La Turquie d'Asie' of V. Cuinet. In order to enable the reader to locate the place names of Eastern Anatolia on modern maps, I have adopted the renderings as given in the gazetteer of Turkey (!'Mirkiyede meskin yerler kilavusu' ('Gazetteer of the Inhabited Places of Turkey!), published by the Ministry of the Interior of Turkey, Ankara, two volumes, 1946-7), except that for technical reasons instead of the guttural consonant '&' I have written 'gh' or simply 'g'. At the end of each chapter I have appended selected biographies of those Armenians who acted in Ottoman public life for a long period or held comparatively high positions in the government. I have drawn these biographies from local Armenian histories. The provincial year-books in this case were of little help, since the officials are very often referred to only by their Christian names. These biographies will serve to give the reader a more substantial idea of the participation of the Armenian community in Ottoman public life. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In 1958 while lecturing on Armenian history, classical language and literature at the Hovaguimian-Manouguian High School in Beirut, I was offered a scholarship for three years by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in order to propagate interest in Armenian studies at the University of Durham. Because of the civil war I could not leave Lebanon immediately, but in January 1959 I went to England and was received warmly by St John's College at Durham. The Principal, Ir J.P. Hickinbotham MA, Mr John Cockerton MA and my other friends helped me in every way: I thank all of them for their wonderful hospitality. I am particularly grateful to the Director of the School of Oriental Studies, Professor T.W. Thacker who encouraged me to undertake research about the service of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. I am much indebted also to Professor Richard Hill who kindly accepted me as a special student in the Modern History of the Middle East and agreed to be my supervisor. During the years from 1959 to 1963 he was very helpful in reading my book and making useful suggestions. While working as a post-graduate research- fellow in Armenian Studies at the University of Durham, I improved my Modern and Ottoman Turkish, as well as my Arabic, with assistance of the late Mr C.G. Simpson, Reader in Turkish at the University of Durham, and of Professor F.R.C. Bagley, Reader in Arabic and Persian: I express my gratitude to them! I acknowledge my debt also to Mr I.J.C. Foster MA, the former Keeper of Oriental Books at the University of Durham, who provided for me rare books from all parts of the world.